Worcester's losing more than old buildings

PHOTO/ T&G Staff/STEVE LANAVA

The Odd Fellows Home on April 16.

One of the most "critically endangered" structures on Preservation Worcester's Most Endangered Structures will soon become extinct.

The demolition crews arrived at the Odd Fellows Home at 104 Randolph Road last week, preparing to tear down the building to make way for a new, modern Alzheimer's wing for the adjacent Dodge Park Rest Home.

"It's really a shame that a National Register building is being demolished," said Deborah Packard, executive director of Preservation Worcester. "I'll miss it, and I think a lot of other people will miss it."

According to Preservation Worcester's website, "The Odd Fellows Home was opened in 1892 by the International Order of Odd Fellows as a nursing home... The 1892 brick building is three-and-a-half stories tall with a five-story clock tower.... It originally sat on a 24-acre site donated by Thomas Dodge to provide the residents with 'ample light and air.' The building was listed on the National Register (of Historic Places) as an individual property in 1980."

A one-year demolition delay on the building expired in 2011, and it was purchased in 2012 by KMRN Investment LLC.

The company has received all of its permits to build a $14.6 million, 61,920-square-foot, state-of-the-art residence for 82 elderly people on the 4.6 acres where the Odd Fellows Home now sits. The company is currently applying for a demolition permit, according to a spokeswoman for City Manager Edward M. Augustus, Jr.

The rest home will consist of two one-story buildings with 41 beds each and serve people with memory impairment, dementia and Alzheimer's.

Micha "Mike" Shalev, owner of the Dodge Park Rest Home and developer of the new Alzheimer's wing, told me that demolition contractor Patriots Environmental Corp. of Worcester and Oxford is removing asbestos from the building. Patriots has a deadline of July 1 for demolishing the building and bringing the site level for new construction, he said.

Mr. Shalev said the Odd Fellows building was "not salvageable" and attempting to renovate the building would cost twice as much as demolishing and building new. In addition, the new building will be one story, not five, and will have some outdoor space for patients.

"We're going to have a wonderful building there, something that is useful," he said. The new buildings are scheduled to be finished next year.

The Odd Fellows building is next door to the Higgins Armory building, another historic structure whose future is in doubt. (The building is for sale).

The 128-year old Spanish Church of God building on Main Street was demolished this winter by Clark University. The city's building inspector had declared the building an imminent threat, as its fašade was in danger of falling.

The Central Building at 322-332 Main St., built in 1925 and owned by the Kroc family, is also under threat. The family has asked for permission to knock it down, but the city instituted a one-year delay under its historic structures ordinance. I understand a group of business owners and nonprofits are trying to buy the building from the Krocs and restore it.

I edit the "Then and Now" feature every week that appears in the Sunday Telegram and Telegram & Gazette on Mondays. I am repeatedly struck by how much more beautiful "then" buildings are, compared to "now." I have been editing these features for two years, and the only building that jumps out in my memory is having been markedly better than what it replaced was the main Worcester Public Library on Salem Street. It replaced a shoe factory.

Now, I agree that many of the historic structures are torn down because they have not been cared for and are falling down on their own. Business owners weigh the advantages and disadvantages of restoring a building once they own it, and in almost every case, it is less expensive to knock down and build new.

But from an aesthetic point of view, from an architectural point of view, Worcester is bulldozing what makes it special and unique. There will never be another building like the Odd Fellows building — it would never be cost-effective nowadays.

But the building has been allowed to deteriorate, windows were broken, the roof leaked, and the inside was described by one public official who took a tour as "scary."

In two years, if we print a Then and Now on the Odd Fellows building, and we show the gleaming two one-story Alzheimer's buildings that have taken its place, I will say, not for the first time, "It is a shame that building came down."

Aaron Nicodemus can be reached at aaron.nicodemus@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @anic89